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Captain Griffen
Captain Griffen the baryonyx is a major character in The Carnivore Curse. Biography Grouchenbax Griffen is the captain of the guards on Baronia and helped to protect King Jeck from Prince Poota's renegade faction. Despite his unquestioned loyalty to his ruler, Griffen is also rather narrow-minded and has a choleric nature. Griffen disliked herbivores because he viewed them as suspicious and their motives dubious, but he was willing to help the DSS to save his king. He was supposed to help Teggs, Arx, Gipsy, and Iggy help Jeck get over his Ribchomper's Mump Bumps, but, due to his short temper and skepticism about their motives, he wound up arguing with the astrosaurs almost as much as he helped them, once even going so far as to accuse them of working for Poota! Instead of questioning suspects, he liked to hit them over the head with his tail. Griffen accompanied the astrosaurs throughout most of the book and, despite his flaws, was the only named baryonyx who was truly loyal to his ruler and was (understandably) furious when he learned that Sergeant Donkle was a traitor to the king. He was impressed when the carnivore creature (actually Doctor Herdlip under the effects of Herbicarnus-X) attacked them and Teggs announced that he was prepared to risk his life to save a carnivore. He fled to Herdlip's room with Arx and Jeck, only to be captured by Poota's agents. Teggs and his crew soon arrived on the scene and released them after a long battle with Prince Poota, Donkle, and their minions. Griffen attacked Herdlip, saying angrily that apologies wouldn't make up for trying to destroy the baryonyx way of life. Jeck, however, told the younger baryonyx to let the sellosaurus go, and Griffen obeyed. Griffen then asked Teggs if he could uphold a certain baryonyx tradition on Poota, and promptly whacked the evil prince over the head with his tail. It was he who made sure that Poota and his cronies were all sent to prison. Personality Griffen is a character with both good and bad qualities. He is intensely loyal, indeed the only named baryonyx who was truly loyal to King Jeck, and is disgusted by treachery, as is shown by his anger with Sergeant Donkle (who was Griffen's trusted deputy and possibly a former friend, as the two were seen talking together during the investigation). However, Griffen is also gruff, narrow-minded, and short-tempered, preferring to solve problems with force and jumping to conclusions. However, his initial distrust of herbivores may have changed after he gained respect for Teggs's efforts to save King Jeck, and later saw Jeck's forgiveness of Doctor Herdlip. Jeck explained to a captured Poota and Griffen that prejudice and generalizations were not a way to end difficulties between carnivores and herbivores, and that Herdlip's actions were not the actions of all plant-eaters. Griffen seemed to have accepted this lesson at the end of the book. Trivia * In the text of The Carnivore Curse, Griffen is described as having blue scales, but he is yellow with green spots on his collector's card. * Captain Griffen is a Baryonyx walkeri. * Griffen is the only character allied with Teggs to be grouped with the "Foes" cards - presumably the cards refer to the time before the book they are for, as Griffen notably began to respect plant-eaters more following his experiences with [[the Sauropod|the Sauropod]] crew. Category:Astrosaurs Category:Carnivores Category:Heroes Category:Baryonyx Category:Spinosaurs Category:Reformed Characters Category:AOTMs Category:IOTMs Category:Steve Cole's favourite characters